Seattle attorney Ken MacDonald is no stranger to civil rights and civil liberties issues. Ken has appeared before the US Supreme Court on labor and civil rights issues, and he chaired the Washington State Human Rights Commission from 1962-68. He also is a past president and board member of the ACLU of Washington.

Ken graciously agreed to do some research and enlighten us on lynchings and other difficult issues. His research will be the basis for several posts on the exhibition Kickin’ It with Joyce J. Scott.

Learn a bit more about Ken at the website for MacDonald Hogue & Bayless.

Ken relied on the following as information sources:

1. Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photograph in America, 98 plates supplement by some description of the plates. The public spectacle, some burning, mutilation, and souvenir predators, shared by postcards. Twin Palms Publishers, 2000 (“Without Sanctuary”).
2. Slavery in New York, published by the new Press, New York 2005 (“Slavery in New York”).
3. A Lynching in the Heartland: Race and Memory in America, James H. Madison, August 7, 1930, Marion, Indiana, Palgrave MacMillan 2001 (“Madison”).
4. Our Town: A Heartland Lynching, A Haunted Town and the Hidden History of White America, Cynthia Carr, Crown Publishers 2006, a Division of Random House. 2006 (“Our Town”) The Marion Indiana Lynchings, Marion Indiana, August 7, 1930.
5. The Name of War: King Phillip’s War and the Origins of American Identity, Jill Leport 1999, Vintage Books, A Division of Random House.
6. The History of Violence in America, 1969. A Report to the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence by Hugh Davis and Ted Robert Gurb. Comments by Richard Maxwell Brown. (“Commission Report”)
7. Forever Free: the Story of Emancipation and Reconstruction, Eric Foner, 2005, Alfred A. Knoph, a Division of Random House, N.Y. (“Forever Free”)